Cristina Odone is a journalist, novelist and broadcaster specialising in the relationship between society, families and faith. She is the director of communications for the Legatum institute and is a former editor of the Catholic Herald and deputy editor of the New Statesman. She is married and lives in west London with her husband, two stepsons and a daughter. Her new ebook No God Zone is now available on Kindle.

Give us more than a break, remove the charity hurdles

We'd all be generous, if the Government removed the obstacles (Photo: Alamy)

The most memorable charity do I’ve ever attended was held by a Jewish friend of mine in Manhattan. She was raising funds for a new wing for Columbia Presbyterian hospital, and had invited 100 friends to a gala dinner.

The MC was ruthless. Microphone in hand, he wandered from table to table, soliciting donations by naming and shaming: “Sol Levinson, let me hear how much you’re giving tonight? What?! Only $5,000, when we know you live in a penthouse worth $10 million? Come on, you can do better than that. And if you can’t, Aaron here can. What will you give me Aaron, for this great cause?” It worked: in a tight-knit group, competition plus humiliation are powerful incentives.

Prodding an entire nation to give, though, is a bit more challenging. The Government hopes to do just that in today’s White Paper, which offers greater tax breaks for legacy givers, tax relief for investors in disadvantaged areas, and Gift Aid reform.

Tinkering with tax breaks may get the wealthy elite to put their hands in their pockets a bit more often; it may mean that Dame Vivien Duffield will top her £8.2 million donation to “cultural learning” and that Oxford University will raise £1.5 billion instead of £1 billion in its next fund-raising exercise. But to stir the nation’s generosity, the Government needs to take down the obstacles that stand in the way of those who want to give not only money but also time.

I recently met a father of two who wanted to join a Saturday football coaching scheme for local children. But faced with that familiar litany of humiliating CRB checks, time-consuming health and safety hurdles, the cost of insurance, and concerns about peanut allergies (he planned to offer chocolate bars to refuel players at half time), is it any wonder his enthusiasm for do-gooding was quashed?

For a more giving Britain, the Government doesn’t need to come up with more incentives; it just needs to remove all the impediments.

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Barack Obama, enjoy it while you can. For former colonies from Kenya to America, Britain may hold unpleasant associations, but just compare what you find here to what you’ve left back home. The BBC instead of Fox News. The cerebral Andrew Marr vs the ranting Glenn Beck. A Parliament that really debates the national agenda, rather than a Congress so packed with your enemies that stalemate is routine.

Over here Birthers are the butt of jokes, and our Tea Party features tea pots not crackpots. Your multicultural credentials thrill the liberal Left, who will overcome their anti-Americanism to welcome you; while the Right revere you as the leader of the Free World. So kick up your heels, Mr Obama, and enjoy your stay in Britain: it’s a small island but a tolerant one.

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Alexander Mamut is the secretive Russian oligarch who has bought Waterstone’s for £53 million. The Muscovite claims he will return the national chain to its roots as a local book shop; he’s shown he means business by appointing James Daunt, the CEO of Daunt Books, to take charge of the project.
Mamut has been described by friends as a true book-lover and the buy-out as a victory for literature.

But I worry that it is also a victory for Vladimir Putin. Will Waterstone’s shelves display coffee-table
books featuring Putin in combat trousers, showing off his Rambo six pack? Will the windows be piled with the latest Outdoor Life magazine in which the Russian leader waxes lyrical about his love of fishing?

I confess to a personal interest. My husband is just finishing a sizzling exposé of Russian espionage. If Waterstone’s shuns anti-Putin books, it will be Soviet-era rationing at home.